Update 4th May '25

Last week was better, but still mixed.

I thought I'd fixed some of the framework problems, only to get bogged down while updating the individual harlots. I did drop a release on the 1st, but I wasn't really happy with it.

The main goal of putting something - anything - out was to relieve some of the pressure I was putting on myself so I could pause, step back and try to identify what wasn't working. I thought I might need to take a break from coding, but after putting the release out I found some renewed enthusiasm and was immediately able to fix some of the things I wasn't happy with.

Unfortunately, this only lasted until Saturday, when I hit another snag and sank right into the bog again. What I'm trying to do isn't all that complicated, but some poor design decisions early on have added some unnecessary complexity that keeps tripping me up. Yes, I can bodge around it, but projects that do this eventually run into problems further down the line, so it's important I get it cleaned up properly now.

People have asked if there's any help they can do with the coding. Unfortunately, while appreciated, I suspect this would only make the problem worse. In this case, it's not about getting it to work, I can already do this, but having it stable enough I'm not thinking about the underlying framework at all 20+ harlots from now. Needing workarounds for things like the black rose is a red flag to me that indicates there are still some flaws that need to be ironed out.

Where people can help is with the regression testing. What took up a lot of time last week was having to go through the same harlot scenario over and over again. The full game isn't really conducive to that. I do have a separate harlot tester program I use to test each scenario separately. What I will do is make that available on the houseofhellishharlots website so people can give each harlot a thorough look over once I've updated them with the notebook functionality. Look for that in a week or so.

Now for plans for next week. I'm conscious I've been bogged down trying to program this feature for much longer than I'd like, which isn't particularly interesting for patrons. Some have suggested to get a new short story out, which I'm considering. I was also planning to take a month off from HoHH this year to finish the last couple of stories needed for a new short story collection. So I could maybe do that.

On the other hand, while I am struggling a little with the current problem, I am fully immersed in it and gradually fixing the various things that need to be fixed. Taking a break risks resetting everything back to square one and another lengthy period of trying to figure out what I was doing when I come back to it in a month or so's time.

I dunno. I'll see how I get on today. I thought I was damn close on Friday before another snag popped up.

In much better news, I received the latest batch of art from marwmellow. I dropped Eve Satana on the discord as what was going to be a temporary teaser I was planning to delete later. Instead I think I'll leave her out as an early treat. I think we all need it!

Thanks for the continued support.
- manyeyedhydra